Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

Sunday, November 13, 2016

An Open Letter to Franklin Graham

On November 10th, Franklin Graham posted his reaction to the Presidential election on his Facebook page. My response to his reaction appears below.

Mr. Graham,

With all due respect to you
and the Protestant authority your surname grants you, I think that you are
inflicting irreparable harm upon Christians and the reputation of the Savior we
claim to represent. You began your essay with a question, “Did God Show Up?” as
if his ability to be present in people’s lives was predicated upon the balance
of power between two American political parties. Let me pose a rebuttal
question, “What Makes You Think That He Ever Left?” At what point did the God who
created the heavens and the Earth become cowered by the balance of power in
modern America? At what point did Jesus - whose entire ministry took place in
the shadow of Roman imperialism - become too squeamish to operate in our
nation?

I say this
because your words have inexorably linked the will of Christ with the actions
of Donald Trump and his administration. That is dangerous not because of who he
is, but because of what politics is not: a surrogacy for Christian discipleship.
Politics is an intrinsically secular and self-serving extension of American
democracy. To attribute the actions and words of a politician to God is nothing
short of blasphemy. Yes, our faith will affect where we fall on a few issues, but
I dare say that most political issues don’t have a clear faith component. For
example:

Corporate Tax Rates?

Immigration?

Mandatory Minimum Sentencing?

Congressional Term Limits?

Asian Trade Tariffs?

Gun Control?

The Defense Budget?

Healthcare Costs?

Standardized Tests?

The Opioid Epidemic?

Capital Punishment?

Agricultural Subsidies?

Social Security Reform?

Banking Regulations?

All that I
am saying is that it is perfectly reasonable for American Christians to come to
different conclusions on the issues without having their faith publicly
questioned. That leaves us with homosexuality and abortion; two theological
minefields that we have been unable to reach a consensus about as a religion
much less a country. If I am Catholic, the very act of taking birth control is
a sinful medical intrusion into the reproductive process while a Protestant
might only define abortion as the selective termination of a viable pregnancy
with no extenuating circumstances. Homosexuality is equally as murky among
believers who are still grappling with the idea of nature versus nurture.

You said
that “God’s hand intervened Tuesday night to stop the godless, atheistic
progressive agenda from taking control of our county” which leaves the reader with
a few possible scenarios:

1.God’s hand only intervenes on certain
occasions and the Trump/Pence ticket was worthy of such a celestial intrusion
where the Romney/Ryan or MacCain/Palin ticket was not.

2.God intervened in this election
because Christian families and churches prayed about it more than they did in
2008 or 2012.

3.This is the first time a “godless,
atheistic progressive agenda” has attempted to take control of the country.

As an added
bonus, your statement carelessly labeled the 65 million citizens who cast their
vote for someone other than the Republican nominee as going against the very will
of God. Instead of simply disagreeing with their political conclusions, you
have chosen to dismiss them redundantly as “atheistic” and “godless.” Is it
really so improbable that a fellow believer found themselves unable to cast a
vote for Donald Trump? Will the Day of Judgment be a long line of Americans
attempting to explain their support of Gary Johnson, Hillary Clinton, or Dr.
Jill Stein?

The God I
love is not restricted to arbitrary labels like conservative, liberal,
Republican or Democrat. At the risk of sacrilege, I would even venture to guess
that He isn’t even an American. The God I love does expect me to conduct myself
with faith and grace, especially in dealing with those I disagree with. The God
I love would never equate contemporary political affiliation with eternal
sacred worth or casually invalidate the faith of another person because our
ballots were not identical.

You ended
the commentary by declaring that, “My prayer is that God will bless America
again.” What does that even mean? Has your God been withholding his blessings
from 319 million people until the Electoral College would allow Him to resume
dispensation through Donald Trump? Did your God need the permission of a
political party to touch the hearts and lives of his children? Does your God
require His ministers to endorse political candidates while utilizing Facebook
to denounce “secular media”?

Jesus
conspicuously avoided political commentary over the course of His Earthly
ministry, perhaps you should do likewise.